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So we’ve got the fresh Greek elections we expected and markets, despite the inevitability that we would get here, have reacted with some alarm. European stocks have shed around 1 percent, and the harbour of German Bunds is pushing their futures price up in early trade. The Greeks will try to form a caretaker government today to see them through to elections expected on June 17.

The key question is whether the mainstream parties can mount a convincing campaign second time around, playing on the glaring contradiction in SYRIZA’s position (no to bailout, yes to the euro) and essentially turning the vote into a referendum on euro membership, which the overwhelming majority of Greeks still support. Don’t count on that. SYRIZA remains ahead in the polls.
To be able to pull it off, PASOK and New Democracy will need some help from Europe. There have already been hints from Brussels that if a pro-bailout government is formed, Athens could be given some leeway on its debt-cutting terms. But equally other voices are saying there is no more room for manoeuvre.

France’s Francois Hollande used his presidential debut to frame help for Greece within his push for a European growth strategy last night, saying he hoped that could also foster a return to prosperity there. He and Germany’s Angela Merkel are due in the United States for a G8 summit at the end of the week where doubtless they will come under heavy pressure to make sure Greece doesn’t bomb out of the euro zone or, if it does, that the effect is contained. Easier said than done. Given a Greek euro exit would probably require rapid concerted reaction from the EU, IMF (to shore up Spain?) and the world’s big central banks (remember the global monetary policy response after the collapse of Lehmans?), planning for that could well be bubbling below the surface at the G8.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said last night that it was important to be technically prepared for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone while Finland’s prime minister said Greek euro exit would not cause the financial mayhem seen in 2008.

As we’ve said before, Greece has some leverage. The IMF, ECB and euro zone governments are holding a lot of Greek debt so have an incentive to keep the show on the road or face heavy losses if there is a hard default. Of Greece’s 250 billion-plus euros of debt, nearly 200 billion is now held by those public bodies, most of it by the ECB, which could need recapitalizing after that sort of hit, something that would fall back on euro zone governments. It is also hard to see how Europe could avoid propping Greece up even if it did leave the currency club. The calculation for euro zone leaders is whether pouring good money after bad is more or less palatable than taking a big loss on their Greek debt holdings.

On the growth strategy, there are hints that Spain will get more time to hit its 3 percent of GDP budget target, so why not something similar for Greece? PASOK leader Venizelos, the man who negotiated the bailout and who was humiliated in the election 10 days ago, has pressed for three years rather than two to make the cuts required by Greece’s programme. If he got stronger signals from euro zone partners that something like that could happen – and persuaded the electorate that this is the only way to avoid euro exit — it’s possible that he and New Democracy leader Samaras could do better second time around. The problem for the markets is that while you can take a reasonable stab at how politicians might act, it’s much harder to read a battered electorate. So they are in for a rocky month.

What is undeniably true is that the piecemeal European growth measures announced so far to revive moribund economies don’t amount to a hill of beans.

A sensible article that forecasts the likely outcome. The EU will give Greece some breathing space which will convince voters to return to either Pasok or ND who will form a pro bailout coalition. That will kick the Greek problem into the long grass – but will not solve anything for the long term.

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Based in London, I run the economics, economic policy and markets cover from the EMEA region. Previously, I was Chief UK Political Correspondent for seven years and have also been economics correspondent as well as holding general news and market reporting posts over a 20-year career.